Maude Roysdon

Minnie Maude “Maudie” Nelson Roysdon (Sept. 24, 1888 – Aug. 18, 1946) was a resident of the No Business area of the present-day Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area for whom Maude’s Crack is named.

See Also: Noteworthy Settlers of the Big South Fork Region

Biography

Born Sept. 24, 1888 in Cumberland County, Tenn., Minnie “Maudie” Nelson was the daughter of Lorenzo Dow Nelson and Rose Ann “Rosie” Givens. She was the oldest of about nine children. Her siblings included William, Dailey, Ira, Ola Myrtle, Glennis, Clarence, Robert and Esther.

The Nelson family spent much of their lives in Roane County, Tenn., near Rockwood. Her father died in Rockwood in 1929; her mother died in Rockwood in 1931.

Maudie married Isham R. Roysdon, a Baptist preacher, who was the son of Jesse Roysdon and Ithema Terry. Born in 1867, he was 21 years older than her. They had at least nine children (and perhaps as many as 11): John Calvin, born 1903; Hubert Loranzo, born 1905; Rosa Levania, born 1909; Bell, born 1910; Willis Nimrod, born 1913; William Milton, born 1915; Daily Helen, born 1919; Frank, born 1925; Mary “Mabel”, born 1927; and Rolland “Junior”, born 1930. There may have been two more: Isaac and Millie.

Maude’s Crack

Maude’s Crack is a natural fissure in the cliff face above No Business Creek, near the John Muir Trail. The “crack” is located at the end of the same ridge that Terry Cemetery is located on. The ridge becomes progressively narrow until it abruptly ends at a cliff between No Business Creek and Big Branch. The fissure serves as a narrow passageway through the cliff line, though it is so steep that most hikers require the use of a rope to descend through it. A one-mile-long hiking trail connects Maude’s Crack to Terry Cemetery. An unofficial foot path at the base of Maude’s Crack leads to the John Muir Trail, which leaves the Big South Fork River at the mouth of Big Branch and follows Big Branch to near the base of Maude’s Crack before following Betty Branch to No Business Creek.

According to oral legend, Isham and Maudie Roysdon lived in a home on top of the ridge, and Isham worked on a logging crew in the river gorge. Maudie would take her husband lunch each day, and his coworkers were amazed that it was still warm from the stove when she arrived. Unbeknownst to them, she had discovered the fissure through the cliff that served as a shortcut into the gorge.

A separate story says that the Roysdons’ home burned and they lived for a period of time in a rock shelter at the base of the cliff line, and used the crack as a passageway from their temporary home to the top of the gorge.

Death

Maudie Roysdon died of a cerebral hemorrhage on Aug. 18, 1946, at age 57. She lived in the Rock Creek area of Fentress County at the time, and was buried at Terry Cemetery. Isham Roysdon had been buried at Terry Cemetery when he died in April 1935, at age 68.